Time Enough For Tears
by Starlit Shadows
Summary: Set five years after Harry leaves school and vanquishes Voldemort. Harry meets an old friend after taking up a job at Hogwarts to find her much changed. Reviews appreciated.


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1

Reunion

It was a beautiful sunset in the middle of August, one of those rare, cloudless, Scottish evenings when the sheer tranquility and quiet gave one goose pimples. The sun was sinking in between in mountains and the eastern sky was already a deep, rich purple. Nestled in between two mountains on the lakeside was a tiny village. Many of the cottages were already aglow with lights and the delicate flickering of candles. A path ran up the north side of the hamlet to the middle of the mountain, where a magnificent castle rose protectively over the valley.

The castle, in itself, was something spectacular to look at in the gentle summer twilight. Its many towers and turrets rose for several storeys, and its strange architecture made it look like it was held up by _magic_. Some of its windows were lit, but on the whole it looked desolate and lonely in the stillness of the sunset.

The only contrast in the quiet scene was the forest. It rose ominously to the west of the castle and continued down to the valley below it and up the mountain opposite to that of the castle. It was dark and full of fir trees, and it looked like evil creatures lived there. But, funnily enough, it seemed that not only evil belonged in that forest. Somehow, it seemed that it housed good things as well. Somehow- maybe this was the influence of the castle- it was as if it was also doing a good job in keeping evil out of the valley.

The stillness of this pastoral scene was broken as a young man came out of the great castle door, and walked down the winding path leading to the village. As he walked, he whistled a tune and put his hands in his pockets. He was wearing very uncommon clothes. His crimson robes were lined with golden thread and his matching cloak billowed slightly in the cool twilight breeze. The wind caught his jet-black hair, revealing a strange lightning-bolt-shaped scar in his forehead, and he held onto his round, gold-rimmed spectacles as though he thought they were going to blow off. After he had walked about halfway down the track, he stopped by a moss-covered wall, and leant on it, as though he was waiting for someone. However, no one at all was walking up the path to meet him. In fact, he was just about the only human being in sight.

Suddenly, a woman about the same age as the man came out behind the wall he was leaning on, as if she appeared out of thin air. She was almost as tall as him, and slender. Her fair hair was long and tied back in a neat, wavy ponytail. She was dressed in the same strange robes the man was wearing, only hers were a rich lilac. On seeing him almost right next to her, she gave a cry of surprise and embraced him tightly.

"Harry! You're here!"

"It's been too long, Alice," he replied, grinning as they drew apart. She took a step backwards and look past him, up at the castle.

"Hogwarts," she whispered, a faint trace of nostalgia in her voice, even though she was clearly in her early twenties. "Yes, five years _have_ been far too long. I wonder why we drifted apart after we left?"

He shook his head. "We got too wrapped up in our own lives, I guess. And you being in France and all…"

She shook her head too. "But we could have easily Apparated, couldn't we? No, it's my fault. I was always postponing, there was always work to be done, or family affairs to take care of…" She shrugged.

"Speaking of which, how's your dad?"

"Knee-deep in phoenix feathers as usual," she said, fondly. "He's got four new ones to train. _Four! _He's gone and got his hands full this time. It was hard, leaving him, but it was hard to pass up a job offer at _Hogwarts_! It's going to be nice, working in a school Hospital Wing. But how about you, Harry? How have you been holding up these past five years? I hear you're a qualified Auror." Alice beamed with pride.

"Yes, I finished my training two years ago."

"Why did you leave? It was obvious that you loved your job from the letters you sent."

He shrugged. "Same as you, I guess. Hard not to accept the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts. And, truth be told, being an Auror isn't all it's cracked up to be. They load you with work, and I literally spent my days either working or sleeping."

"It was the same at Saint-Luc. There was a serious shortage of Healers, so we were all overworked and underpaid. The French wizarding health authorities are _notorious _for being terrible employers. I learnt that the hard way, I guess." Alice smiled and shrugged, and Harry caught a sad look in her eyes that he hadn't seen before. "Anyway," she said, gesturing towards the castle in an obvious attempt to change the subject. "Shall we get going, then? It's getting cold out here!"

As they trudged up to Hogwarts in the semi-darkness, they talked of their years at school together. They had known each other only by sight till their sixth year, as they belonged in different houses: Harry in Gryffindor, and Alice in Ravenclaw. It was only when Alice had joined the D.A., a club Harry had organised for students to learn duelling hexes and spells, that they had become fast friends. Those were dark times, when the evil Lord Voldemort was posing a huge threat to the wizarding world, and there was a tense atmosphere all around. Harry had been depressed and lonely: his godfather and only remaining father figure, Sirius Black, had passed away at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange, one of Voldemort's most loyal supporters, and Dumbledore, the school's headmaster had made a horrible truth known to him. According to a prophecy made at Harry's birth, he had to either destroy Voldemort or be killed himself. It was only until the end of Harry's seventh and final year at the Wizarding School that the prophecy had been fulfilled: after a gruelling duel, Harry had managed to strip Voldemort of his power and his supporters had been weeded out and punished accordingly. Harry's best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, had stuck by him throughout the previous seven years, as had other friends, like Neville Longbottom, Ron's sister Ginny, Luna Lovegood, and Alice. Their parting had been hard, full of promises of reunions and such, but these vows had never been fulfilled.

"I desperately want to see Ron and Hermione again," said Alice as they walked together in the desolate, firelit school corridors. In a couple of weeks, they would be overflowing with life as the Hogwarts students returned.

Harry smiled warmly. "You're in luck. Ron's bought a house in Hogsmeade and Hermione's got some time off to come visit for a fortnight."

Alice's eyes lit up. "Truly? Oh, I can't wait to see them! When is she coming? When can we meet Ron?"

"Hermione's coming a week from tomorrow, and we can visit Ron anytime. They've got their hands full at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, though," he said, referring to Weasley brothers' wizarding joke shop. "They've got a new product coming in, Exploding Quills, and they've got a massive number of orders to take care of…I suppose there are going to be plenty of tricks played in class…" He grinned, remembering his own schooldays.

"Yes, and I'm going to have to take care of the casualties!" Alice laughed.

"Ah, here we are," said Harry, as they came to a stop in front of a life-sized portrait of a fat old man with rosy cheeks. The man unsteadily tipped his hat to Alice.

"Password?" he inquired.

"_Doxy wings,_" said Harry, firmly. The man nodded and the painting swung aside to reveal a doorway to large, circular room. "We're in the West tower, Alice. This is your room, I hope it'll do, and…"

"…the Hospital Wing is a floor down, I know, Harry," she smiled. "As for the room, I think it's brilliant." And she did. It was airy, with three big glass windows. The four-poster bed opposite the door was draped with white muslin and the fire crackled merrily in front of two squashy armchairs and a thick rug. The stone walls were kept from being bare thanks to a multitude of shelves, tapestries and paintings, and there was ample furniture for storage purposes. All in all, it exuded an aura of cosiness, and Alice, who usually found it hard to adjust to different surroundings, felt instantly at home. Her grin grew wider as she found another door leading to a gleaming white bathroom. "I love it."

Harry grinned too as he slumped down on an armchair. "I'll tell Dobby, then. He spent all morning trying to put up the curtains on your bed. It's interesting, how house-elves do that bit of work. They stand on each other's shoulders, more than three of 'em, and they pass the curtains up, like _so_…" he said, describing and miming the whole procedure, complete with a squeaky house-elf voice. Alice was in fits by the end of it.

"You've changed," she said, giving him a shrewd look.

"I have?"

"More than you can imagine. Don't worry, it's for the better! Dunno, when we were in school, you were quiet… You seem to have lost the teenage angst," she said, rubbing the back of her neck, as she was wont to do when she was shy about something.

Harry shrugged. "Well, things _have_ gone for the better, haven't they? And I can't say _you_ haven't changed too…"

And she had. Gone was the vivacious, cheeky tomboy, and in her place there was a more gentle, beautiful woman. Her sharp wit and intelligence had mellowed out into premature wisdom, and though her smiles were rarer, they were sweeter and more genuine. However, Harry could not get the notion that her life hadn't been a bed of roses since they last parted out of his head. She was only twenty-two, but the spark that had adorned her eyes since their childhood had dimmed, though not extinguished itself completely, and although Harry was already fond of the woman sitting opposite him, he couldn't help missing the boyish girl.

Alice sighed heavily. "I suppose I have, yes. Times change, and people do too. I dare say that the seventeen-year-old me would have been revolted by that fact, but there we are. Life hasn't been easy since we last met. But anyway," she perked up visibly, "what about dinner? Is it too late for that? Have I missed it?"

Harry laughed. One thing hadn't changed about Alice for sure, and that was her penchant for food. "No, we'll be able to get a bite still if we hurry. Do you still think about food all the time?"

"Yes, I do. And I need to get my strength up if I'm to meet Dumbledore tomorrow morning, as you said before." She got up, and Harry followed. Just as he moved to close the portrait, a thought came to him.

"Alice, why didn't you Floo in and save the walk? Why did you Apparate?"

Alice smiled again. "I always loved the castle grounds in the evenings, have you forgotten? Remember when we were messing around one night and Luna swore she had seen a Crumple-Horned Snorkack near Hagrid's cabin? She had made us go there in the dead of night, looking for it, remember?"

Harry's face lit up with sudden recollection. "Yes! And do you remember when Hermione got her first detention for cheeking Snape?"

Alice laughed, and thus they began the long walk to the Great Hall, reminiscing once more of their teenage years and the scrapes they had gotten themselves into.

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DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter and the magical world created by J.K. Rowling. I can only take credit for any original characters, such as Alice. This piece of fanfiction was not written in an attempt to make money or for me to profit in any way, save for enjoyment.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first installment. Reviews are always appreciated, especially clever ones. Cheers! - Claire xxx


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